Englishtown cable ferry services busiest in the province

ENGLISHTOWN — William Horton had only intended to fill in for a two weeks, it quickly turned into another two and before he knew it, he had 25 years with the provincial cable ferry service.

He started off as a purser, worked his way through the ranks and is now captain-in-charge of the ferries at Englishtown and Little Narrows.

Horton said the service has changed a lot over the years, particularly when it comes to health and safety.

“Safety is the biggest change, when I first started there was nothing called safety, it was called common sense.

“The emphasis on safety is a good thing, there is a written job procedure, it's about health and safety and that's a very good thing."

The ferry at Englishtown handles about 50 per cent of the province's ferry traffic, the ferry at Little Narrows handles about 25 per cent.

“The extra three cars the ferry at Englishtown will carry now makes a big difference. The ferry takes 15 cars per load, so it translates into one of the old ferry trips. This means a lot when you are trying to clean up traffic and keep the line of cars moving.”

Early on the Torquil MacLean at Englishtown, which came into service in the summer of 2008 replacing the Angus MacAskill, had its growing pains.

“But, this boat has gotten us through weather the MacAskill would have been tied up in,” Horton said. “Weather is a factor year-round for the ferry service —wind in summer, and wind, slush and ice in the winter.”

He added there can be trouble in December and January when heavy snow makes for a lot of slush in the water.

“With a four to six knot tide running on it, and (slush) a couple of feet thick when it packs, it can cause problems. The slush can put us out of service long before the ice can.”

Horton said it doesn’t take a bay full of ice to cause damage.

“If you have a piece of ice a foot and a half thick and a third of the size of the boat, it may not puncture, but everything that holds the boat in place like the shafts, bearings and the like can break, it’s the pressure.”

According to Horton, harbor ice can be every bit as dangerous as drift ice when it fractures or breaks off in pieces.

“I know the public gets upset with us for being out of service, but you can be inconvenienced when it is out of service, or you can be inconvenienced when it is out of service plus have thousands of dollars in repairs."

Horton recalls an incident early on in hs career when the ice hit the ferry.

“It was the MacAskill and it was a piece of ice the size of one of the ramps. The cable broke, there was no way to control the ferry and it ended up about a half kilometre away. It took 22 hours to get her back.”

As Nova Scotia’s masterpeiece, Cape Breton attracts travellers from across the country and world. Horton remembers the day when former prime minster Jean Chretien made a stop in Cape Breton.

"His people called ahead to say he was coming, but they arrived early and we had cars on the boat. They wanted to be ferried alone, but decided to get on with the other cars.

"When we started to cross, Chretien got out of his vehicle and was shaking hands, the locals thought it was great, but the security people were out of their minds."

One of the more scarier times for Horton was when a young man dove off the roof of the MacAskill.

"I was screaming at him out the window, but he dove over. That was crazy, he was just lucky it was slack tide. That was something that took me by surprise."

He recalls a crossing where a group of cheerleaders didn’t have the money for a ticket.

"One of the workers asked them to get out of the car and do a cheer. It took the captain by surprise, but they got across. If someone didn’t have a ticket usually they came back with two, or came back with the money, that’s the way it goes.”

With a 24-hour ferry service, workers may have to deal with extreme cold, extreme heat, maintenance, all the while making sure safety is a priority.

"Its (the ferry) a man-made piece of equipment and anything can happe, and when things are slow that's when they usually do."

He said there were occasions when priests or ministers were heading to the hospital and numerous maternity emergencies.

"Emergencies of any kind take priority."

Horton is old school, he monitors the forecast, but still does his own visual checks.

“I'll go to the top of Kellys Mountain, to the lookoffs, check the wind and see where the drift ice is, so I know what to expect."

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Roy Campbell

March 12, 2014 - 13:35

I traveled the ferry for close to 18 years as a courier driver on that route and the crew were the greatest to deal with I never met one of them that were not courteous or trying to help people get on there way with directions or a bit of knowledge of the area